Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Summer Veg Out Part IV: SMOOTHIES

Wow! I'm glad everyone is enjoying the Summer Veg Out posts -- the feedback has been great!Smoothies are another way to make fruits (and, to a lesser extent, vegetables) fun and easy in the summertime. We make smoothies every day for breakfast or a healthy snack.

Now that my son is almost 10 he likes to show his independence and make his own. However, we started having problems with his idea of how much frozen fruit to use; it was not uncommon to find that he had thrown over 3 cups of frozen blueberries in the blender to make one breakfast smoothie. Talk about expensive!!

This spring when I started working at the smoothie bar I was struck by how easy and attractive it was to make smoothies when the frozen fruit was put into bins instead of bags, and a scoop was kept in the freezer next to them. So that's what I did: I purchased square bins at the wholesale grocery store, just like they use in restaurants, and a 3 oz. ice cream scoop. Here's a picture of my freezer with bins of raspberries, blueberries, pineapple, and mango.

Then I posted a smoothie recipe template on the refrigerator for shmoo's reference. It's practically impossible to go wrong with it. Note that one scoop equals about 3 ounces or 1/3 cup, so that's one cup of fruit altogether. You can peel and slice bananas and freeze and scoop them alongside the rest of the fruit, but we've tried it and prefer the taste of fresh bananas (is it me or do frozen bananas just taste...different?)

Here he is making one this morning: he started with 1 cup of orange-passionfruit juice, then added his favorite lime yogurt...

...a scoop of ice, a scoop of frozen pineapple, and two scoops of frozen blueberries.

Viola -- yummy smoothie! Of course, you can also add nutritious extras to any smoothie: handfuls of cooked or raw greens or other vegetables, slices of avocado, calcium/ multivitamin/ probiotic powder, a tablespoon of ground flax, etc.

Let's hear from all the other summer smoothie addicts out there: what are your favorite combos?P.S. I think this smoothie recipe will work in a regular blender, but I can't guarantee it. I swear by the Magical Super Power of the Vita-Mix to blend absolutely anything. I know it's expensive, but compared to the other blenders I've had it makes a world of difference.

My favorite smoothie recipe is a ripe banana, a cup of chocolate soymilk, a Tbsp of cocoa powder and a tsp of cinnamon. The recipe calls for 8 ice cubes but I skip that step. It's GREAT! Just like a chocolate milkshake!

I want to second your love of the VitaMix. I put off buying one for many years because of the cost. In the intervening years, I burned out at least 5 cheap blenders. They cracked/leaked/motor burned out, etc. It was such a waste! The VitaMix was totally worth purchasing.

My family makes a lot of smoothies with Silk Very Vanilla. It's a really tasty base, with enough sweetener to compensate if your frozen berries are a little sour. To that we add ground flax seed and whatever combination of frozen fruits appeals. We also mix half OJ and half Very Vanilla plus ice cubes for an orange drink, or half lemonade and half Very Vanilla plus frozen raspberries for a totally yum lemon-raspberry drink.

My daily smoothie: One cup fat-free skim milk, half cup OJ, heaping teaspoon nutritional yeast, heaping teaspoon ground flax seed, one frozen banana, smattering of frozen blueberries, then one or two frozen strawberries and/or blackberries, and/or couple of pieces of pineapple, topped off with a couple of heaping teaspoons of fat-free French vanilla yogurt. I use my immersion blender and the cup it came with. It fills it to the brim and keeps me full until lunch time, and I go running every morning, so it's a LOT of smoothie. Yummy!

I wish I had a VitaMix. My parents picked up the older model (with the stainless steel container) at estate sales, and managed to get one for them and one for my sister, but I have had no luck yet. :(I do have a cheap Oster that came with a smoothie cup container, so I just fill it with fruits and milk of varying varieties (cow's milk from Wright Dairy www.wrightdairy.com, or Soymilk, any seasonal or affordable fruit, yogurt, peanut butter, wheat germ - whatever I have on hand that looks like it might be good in a blender (and sometimes half-awake the strangest things look like they might be good in smoothies - like granola or cheese...) and liquify it until it looks drinkable, take it off the blender, pop the top on and stick the straw in, and off I go!

I love your blog. So many good lunch ideas! Just one question though - how do you keep the somen noodles from becoming an interestingly gelatinous solid?

My freezer is rather freakily tidy at the moment! But I must confess I have a bigger freezer downstairs where I keep the bags of extra fruit and all the other bags of stuff... this was mostly to make smoothies easy (and appealing) for my son.

You are a spectacular mother, Jennifer. And your freezer is indeed an inspiration :-D! And Christina, that's an excellent tip (freezing juice/milk in cube trays); I'm going to try that along with Jennifer's ideas.

We found a recipe in the Highlights High Five magazine--actually my son found it:

1 cup frozen strawberries1/2 cup orange juice1 cup yogurt1 banana

It's a little less than sweet with unsweetened yogurt, but with vanilla it's just fine.

He was fascinated with the recipe because it was in "his" magazine, and he helped make it.

And another hearty endorsement of the Vita-Mix. Your smoothies will never be smoother. It's also great for making lemon ice, which is a great summer treat (freezing it in the freezer makes huge chunks, even if you stir. If you take the frozen mix and blend it it's so creamy and smooth.

My husband actually prefers frozen bananas to fresh for smoothies. Whenever we've used fresh, the smoothie seems a little "slimier" than usual. Our staple smoothie ingredients are peanut butter and frozen bananas - mmm!And I heartily second the Vita Mix. I couldn't live without mine. I use it everyday!

The VitaMix rocks. When I shelled out hundreds of dollars for it about 7 years ago, one of my very good friends mused: "that's a big commitment to a kitchen appliance." Indeed, but I love it. I call mine the Vitameatavegamin in honor of I Love Lucy.

I recently made one of the best smoothies: fresh peaches, an orange, a frozen banana, and a cup of vanilla rice milk. It tasted like a Creamsicle.

This is so clever! My little "niece" (actually, my best friend's seven-year-old daughter) also loves smoothies and has made some novice mistakes. One I will never forget is her putting fruit in my blender, peels and seeds and all! My friend may find this tip very helpful at her house.

My "niece" came up with a great combination based on the cucumber-melon scents my friend's partner always wears. (Well, it's great now that she knows to let an adult peel and cut up the fruit first.) Half a honeydew melon, cut up into chunks and frozen for a few hours, plus a cucumber, also cut up, peeled, and frozen for a few hours. Then you divide it up. That's *it*. It's spreading like a virus among my friends.

Smoothies have been the greatest thing for helping me get my 15 month old to eat greens. I make her a spinach smoothie (with bananas and some type of berry (whatever I have on hand)) almost every afternoon and she loves them. She gets excited when I ask her if she wants a smoothie! I desperately want a VitaMix, but I don't think it's going to happen any time soon. :-(

I add a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon, some vanilla and sometimes some dark chocolate. This make two tall glasses.

So Jennifershmoo, is there is healthy smoothie cookbook in your future?

Oh and about the blenders, I have an old Kitchen Aid that does the job. But if it dies, I now know what to look for. The last time I shopped for blenders, I was appalled at the lack of quality there was avaliable.

My kids like the creaminess of a couple tablespoons of silken tofu added to their fruit smoothies - they were shocked at a friends house recently when they "just" had fruit in their smoothies...

QUESTION (and totally off topic) I am going to a family reunion in Walla Walla this August... can you give me some suggestions on vegan-friendly dining in Walla Walla? I realize it's all trendy wine-friendly bistros and such any more (and near-by College Place has stuff I do believe) but I was just wondering if there was any family-friendly (and affordable) restaurants that have more than the token veggie burger? Tri-cities too, as we'll be going home thru there... (you can answer on my blog if you want - if you have any ideas...)

I will share the BEST smoothie or desert drink in existence... Well, at least I think so.

-2 frozen bananas (I slice mine up and freeze them between parchment paper in a plastic bin.)-handful of raw cashews-1 or 2 dates-dash of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger.-splash of vanilla extract-soy or rice milk (enough to blend)

hey! i live in kennewick also. it would be nice to talk to you and share some ideas. im a stay at home mom of two and in the process of adopting one or two more. i am not vegan but mostly raw. where do you do your shopping? we get a lot from azure standard. anyway if your interested contact me through my blog

>>I can't help but observe that you have NOTHING in your freezer! How does one accomplish that?

As I confessed in a comment above your post, we actually have a much larger freezer in the basement pantry. I cleaned out this smaller freezer and turned it into shmoo's, for easy-access to smoothie makings and the frozen veggies he likes to cook.

2 apples, 1 banana, strawberries 2cups, 1 vanilla yogurt and a big handful of spinach leaves, add some ice and a bit of OJ if you want it to be not as thick....now this will give 4 people a HUGE Smoothie! my girls LOVE IT!!!! the other one we love is just: frozen blueberries, yogurt, ice chips and spinach...YUM!tara

My favourite smoothie is what I call my "Monday morning smoothie" - as it will make you extremely happy on a gloomy Monday morning. It's also purple.

3 or 4 frozen strawberries (I get these frozen strawberries from Costco and they're massive, so more if they're smaller)About 1/3 to 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries10-15 frozen cranberriesChocolate almond milk, maybe about 3/4 a cup to a cup... enough to make the frozen fruit nice and liquidy when blended.

And my secret ingredient, Greens+ powder. Mine is slightly orange flavoured, and I don't know whether or not it influences the taste but I feel like it makes it all the more healthy.

It's tasty, chocolatey, and best of all - a fantastic shade of purple!

I have a smoothie almost every morning, and my recipe looks pretty similar to yours, though I find that ice is unnecessary with frozen fruit- it just waters everything down. Also, I generally add some spirulina to up the nutritional value of the drink. Husband likes yogurt in his, but I like mine without. Oh, and I always add a banana, regardless of what other fruits I use- it just makes everything creamy and smooth.

My favorite combo so far that I used to get at the fancy grocery where I worked back in the day is: -fresh squeezed apple-lemon-ginger juice-half a banana-frozen peaches-frozen strawberries

Man- the sweet-tart-spiciness of the juice works so well with the sweetness of the other fruits. And peaches and ginger go so perfectly together. Mmm! I wish I could still get that juice!

We eat smoothies nearly every day around here. But ours are just frozen fruit and then enough orange juice to cover the top of the fruit then blend. So maybe that doesn't technically count as a smoothie. We tried with various milks and yogurts but decided we liked this best. We tend towards blueberries, strawberries and peaches.

Although, we do it many different ways. We like frozen mangoes and berries, or fresh fruit, too. I use different fruit juices, mix up the fruits, whatever comes to mind. I don't generally add milk or soy, but we do occasionally make a chocolate peanut butter smoothie with Chocolate Silk, peanut butter, a banana and some sweetener (Splenda or agave nectar).

I love your blog! Such good recipes.Responding to alpa, if the fruit is frozen individually before it's put in the containers it doesn't stick together, at least it hasn't for me and then put back in the freezer quickly.

Hi, Jennifer. Don't know how comments work, if you'll even get this since it's from an old thread, but was just wondering if you recommend the dry container for the vita-mix, too. Thanks. Oh, and I see you're in the current issue of Vegetarian Times. I'm glad I caught it before my subscription runs out.

Well, our first model came with the dry container and we still have it, but we've hardly ever used it. We got it out a few times to whir oats or wheat berries into flour or dent corn into cornmeal. It worked well, but I think if you're really crazy for fresh flour you might be better off looking into a grain mill.

I ended up going on their website to look for a factory-reconditioned model as my friend has one and says it looks brand new and she never had any problem with it. They had none, so I called to ask. Well, they did have one. I wasn't even going to get it then, but she got me with the free shipping. :-) It was only $50 less than a new one, but with tax and I also got the dry container (couldn't help myself once I checked out some videos using the dry container), it ended up being $60 less. I almost called to cancel the dry container, but decided not to. Oh well, I'm kind of excited. :-)